On #EndSARS riots

I just discovered that my findings, after my private investigations, interrogations and conclusions, on last year’s #EndSARS riots, tally with the views reproduced below from the wall of Abiodun Asimiyu Ladepo, a senior American military officer and great Uite that I have known for some 40 years. He was also incidentally one of the best among the exceptional group of journalists that made The Guardian the flagship between 1983 and 1993.

On the matter of guns and bullets, Biodun is one of those whose specialised training and decades of hands-on experience make them know much more than those of us who only know what we have read and only understand about guns and bullets.

Below is definitely one informed conclusive opinion on last year’s super-destructive #EndSARS protests and violent riots: #EndSARS…the itch and the scratch.

Where is the list of those “massacred” on Lekki bridge?

Where are the names of their family members who ascertained that they were at Lekki that day and have reported them missing since they were massacred?

Where are their home/work/school/church/mosque that have reported them missing since they were “massacred”?

What are their social media names and handles that have gone inactive since they were “massacred”?

And the real questions to which I want answers:

Who sponsored the #EndSARS protest?

Who egged them on with money, food and other items?

Who stood to gain if Lagos State burnt?

Who participated in the burning of Lagos State’s buses?

Who scape-goated Tinubu and incited the mob to attack his properties?

My very first reaction when I first saw the #EndSARS video (that first post is available on this Facebook) was to conclude that a “massacre” had occurred. But hours after that first post, I put on my expert hat. (Yes, after more than 25 years of shooting guns and being in multiple conflicts zones, I am an expert on how guns sound and what bullets do to people when hit.)

I reviewed the video again and didn’t see anyone react to being hit by a bullet. I went to the office the next day and got my colleagues; combined years of gun and bullet experiences more than 300 years, we didn’t find any reaction to being hit with a live bullet.

I put the video on equipment and slowed it to a crawl, looked harder and harder. No evidence of anyone reacting to being hit with a live bullet.

Then I called two people…one of them (on Facebook in a pseudonym) reading this. One is a key member of government and a long-term friend who will never lie to me. The other was (he’s retired now) a senior member of the military who would know if a massacre occurred anywhere in Nigeria and would not lie to me. Neither knew that I called the other.

The first person told me right away that no massacre occurred and told me details of what happened…as friends. I believed him. I had to believe him. We go way back. He would never lie to me on an issue like that.

The second person told me he would double check some things and get back to me. He got back to me within the hour and said there was no massacre. I believed him. By virtue of his position, he would know.

Based on my own expertise on the job that I have been doing for many years; based on opinions of other colleagues; based on equipment verification, and based on the trusted conversations with real personal friends, I concluded that there was no “massacre” at Lekki,  the definition of massacre being “an indiscriminate slaughter of many people.” Emphasis mine.

Did someone die at Lekki? Probably.

Did someone get trampled on? Probably.

Did someone get wounded? Probably.

Should the military have been deployed?

I am a vehement opponent of using the military to quell civil unrests because most militaries are trained to neutralise threats quickly. It’s a base instinct ingrained in them by training and practice. But #EndSARS was a protest against police brutality. Sending the police there would just have inflamed tempers even more.

Like Biodun hinted above, I, O’seun Ogunseitan join in asking if it could be that some persons wanted a different outcome worse than what happened with their last year’s #EndSARS protest.

They had better accept it that they failed and they will always fail.

Eko o ni baje. Nigeria si ma to. Nigeria si ma dara ju bo se ri leni. (Lagos will not spoil. Order will still return to Nigeria and our country will yet be better than it is today.

• O’seun Ogunseitan, Lagos.

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